An example of a prior art water wing for use in an airplane float is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,318,670, issued to Center, and which discloses a small wing arranged on an inside face of each of a pair of airplane floats. The wings are disclosed as being fixed into place on the floats, for the purpose of enabling a (sea) plane to achieve flight, e.g. to achieve an on-step position relative to the surface of the water, in a shorter distance than in instances where such wings are not employed. This allows the aircraft to 1) carry additional weight than previously possible and 2) to take off from smaller bodies of water.
As disclosed, the wing in Center is disclosed as a one piece article, and which is secured in an inside facing and slightly downwardly angled fashion. In practice, and as a result of forces of the water acting upon the float chine during both takeoff and landing (this defined to be the angular intersection of the sides and bottom of the float), there exists a tendency for the wing to break off, and which in more extreme situations will involve the integrity of the float being breached and, as a result, sunk. The possibility is wing breakage is increased exponentially with the degree of chine forces acting upon the float, such as occurring during turning of the seaplane upon the water (see FIG. 3B) or as a result of “walking” or independent sideways travel of the boat relative to its direction of travel along the surface of the water.
A fixed wing or fin design, such as in Center, requires that pilots exercise particular attention to the potential damage which can be caused to floats during ground handling of the float aircraft. Minor damage to the fin and float as a result of mishaps involving improperly designed ground handling equipment can occur, and which the pilot might not see during such as pre-flight procedures. Given further that the fin is submerged underneath the float at the time of launch, the occurrence of such damage is often missed.
Another disadvantage associated with fixed mounted wings or fins, such as again illustrated by Center, concerns the ability of ground handling personnel to launch and/or retrieve a seaplane craft exhibiting a fixed mounted fin associated with the float, and such as is typically caused by the requirement of mounting the fins through the drilling of specialty rivets. Removal of the rivets cannot typically be accomplished without inflicting damage to the wing and/or the integrity of the float. Furthermore, conventional ground handling equipment available at most maintenance and storage facilities does not provide clearance for the fixed in place fin interference (this further measured in one application as a distance between the internal distance between the left and right mounted fins).
Consequently, specialty tooling and equipment is required in order for ground crew to handle float aircraft on land which includes the fixed in place fins. Given the relatively small number of aircraft currently equipped with fixed wings such as shown in Center, the likelihood of such aircraft handling facilities investing in such equipment is relatively low.